At Schools, No Ifs, Ands Or Butts

Educators Get Tough With Anti-smoking Policies

On the first day of classes at Southington High School this year, 65-year-old hall monitor Jack Potter roamed the parking lot with a Polaroid camera, scanning for students who dared to violate the school's new campuswide smoking ban.

``My first instinct was, will this [ban] really work?'' said Potter, a retired teacher and former security guard at the Hartford Civic Center.

With cultural tolerance for teen smoking at an all-time low, the state's high schools are finding themselves on the front lines of the battle of the butt.

In the past year, at least 10 school districts statewide, including Southington, have banned smoking on school grounds. And they are trying everything to keep school property smoke-free.

Some schools have taken the doors off stalls in bathrooms that are popular smoking spots. Bristol school officials have posted monitors at bathroom doors, and many schools, such as in Somers, have locked lavatories to keep control. Some have put sensitive smoke detectors in bathrooms.

The actions are part of a less smoke-friendly culture highlighted by President Clinton's call in August for a government-led crackdown on underage smoking. Clinton sought a ban on cigarette vending machine sales, to curtail ``the deadly temptations of tobacco.''

Even so, teen smoking has increased. A 1995 University of Michigan study that tracked 420 teens in public and private schools nationwide found that smoking had increased among high school seniors from 27.8 percent in 1992 to 31.2 percent in 1994.

In Connecticut, 12 percent of 10th-graders reported almost daily usage of cigarettes or other tobacco products, according to 1993 Strategic School Profiles.

``It's in vogue again,'' said Angie Testa, manager of school health programs for the American Lung Association of Connecticut.

At Bristol Central High School, where a knot of teenagers sat smoking cigarettes on a a curb just beyond the school's property line, some students said the school's 3- year-old smoking ban is intrusive and inconvenient, but hasn't changed their habits.

``It doesn't cut down on smoking,'' said 17-year-old Kelly Lee before stamping out her Marlboro and crossing onto school territory. ``It just makes you sneak around better.''

``It's gone too far,'' said 16-year- old Kristine Suchinski, a Bristol Eastern High junior who said she has smoked since the eighth grade. ``If you're outside, it doesn't bother anyone.''

Penalties for violators vary. In Southington, if a student is caught, the punishment can be as severe as a 10-day suspension for repeat offenses. Many schools offer smoking-cessation classes, but school officials say those classes aren't well attended. In Derby, a school board committee looked into fining students 16 and older who violated the smoking ban, instead deciding to call police right away if a student is caught.

School officials acknowledge a time when they adopted a more liberal attitude toward smoking, setting up specific areas for students. But as more information came to light about the hazards of smoking, the attitudes changed.

In 1993, Connecticut's legislature banned smoking in public school buildings during school hours. And the federal 1994 Goals 2000 Educate America Act required that any youth-oriented health or education program receiving federal funds had to ban smoking indoors.

Thomas Lauria, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Tobacco Institute, which represents the tobacco industry, recalled his high school days in the 1970s, when his private preparatory school outside Buffalo, N.Y., provided a lounge with leather chairs for students' smoking pleasure.

``There's been a sea change,'' Lauria said.

There are no leather chairs in Southington for students to lounge on these days. Instead they are dodging aggressive hall monitors.

At 2 p.m. on a recent weekday in Southington, Potter barged into a bathroom on the first floor.

``Ryan,'' he shouted. ``If I don't see you pretty quick . . . ''

Three students streamed out and swore they weren't lighting up. Potter, who has caught five smokers so far this year, moved on to a more popular spot: the bathroom by the cafeteria. No one was there, but the pungent smell of smoke was evident.

``My butt's in there,'' admitted senior Nate Berkmoes, who was suspended last year for smoking in the bathroom. ``I was thinking of quitting over the summer [because of the new ban] but I enjoy smoking.''

Not all school districts can afford hall patrols as extensive as Southington's. And mandating that teachers check bathrooms can be a contractual mess.

Teachers at schools that allow faculty smoking areas outdoors face a moral quandary. They have to peek into bathrooms to catch juvenile smokers and then run out to grab a smoke themselves.

Last spring, parents and students descended on the school board in Plymouth to complain about the issue. They were upset that teachers were flocking to a town green facing the high school to smoke.